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UFC sues New York man for more than $32 million for alleged piracy

The UFC is stepping up its game in efforts to deter pirates from stealing its content. Once targeting individuals and websites for tens of thousands of dollars, the industry-leader is now going after millions.

As first reported by the New York Post, Zuffa, repped by anti-piracy lawyer Julie Lonstein, is suing a New York man and other unnamed defendants for allegedly uploading UFC events to torrent websites on 124 different occasions.

The promotion seeks more than $32 million in damages and court costs, according to the complaint, which was filed Tuesday in New York federal court and obtained by MMAjunkie. Download a copy of the complaint (right click) here.

Zuffa claims Staten Island resident Steven Messina and his co-defendants also encouraged others to upload and share UFC content and solicited donations to aid the practice.

Messina, 27, lives in Great Neck, N.Y., with his parents, according to the Post.

The suit alleges Messina pirated the material under the screen name “Secludedly” and includes a list of illegally uploaded events stretching back to May 2012. Zuffa said the defendants bragged about their exploits, claiming to be the “Provider of Best MMA & Boxing rips online!”

Zuffa is asking for up to $150,000 for each act of infringement; up to $110,000 for each illegal use of UFC content; up to $60,000 for intercepting UFC content; and lawyer’s fees.

It would be annoying at the beginning, but then I would see it differently.
Ok, many people would be listening to my music for free instead of paying for it. But, it is not such a big problem first of all because that way, much more people will know about my product. And secondly, I am making tons of money anyway.
Thirdly, If I see that it is impossible for me to change this situation, I will not be losing time on that. I will understand that there are some things that I will never be able to control, and Internet piracy is one of them.

Well this nerd is fucked. What an absolute idiot he basically begged to be caught. the fact that this is one of the only guys they caught and it took them this long to find him makes me think they aren't gonna be able to catch many of the streamers.

Also classic rich ass long islander living off his parents at 27 years old. Its people like him that give us a bad name.

Try thinking of it this way Pashak. You are one of the vocal people for increased fighter pay, are you not? The lawsuit said it was seeking up to $150,000 for each act of infringement right? for 124 events? Lets assume(very conservatively Im sure as well) that they are estimating 150,000 in lost revenue per event due to his piracy. Can we assume that 10% roughly of the income they generate goes to fighter pay (overall)? So, that would be 15,000 per event more dollars in the fighters pockets if that guy didnt steal the UFC product, reproduce it, and essentially enable thousands of others to steal it.

Will it put an end to piracy? Worldwide maybe not, but lawsuits like this will eventually put a big damper on NA piracy. I sure as hell dont want to risk a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Not when netflix costs me 7 bucks a month.

UFC just wants some extra easy money. Hopefully they realize that they will never ever stop piracy.

And if they do it will be worse for them. It is not that people that are watching for free will begin to pay.

If you don't make a stand against your product being stolen then why would anybody bother paying for it?

Also a lot of the streaming sites are generating revenue from showing stuff like this which is no different then bootlegging and profiting off of the ufc while not compensating them at all. Even if you are making millions as you suggest I would think you'd be against people doing this.

I find the way companies battle piracy to be pretty interesting. Video game companies are horrible at it because all their methods involve punishing their loyal users, with things like drm. Game of Thrones added a great incentive for people to buy their dvds, by addind a lot of extra content on them, much like Lord of the Rings. As far as the ufc goes, I don't really see them accomplishing much in the big picture with their anti-piracy strategy.

I find the way companies battle piracy to be pretty interesting. Video game companies are horrible at it because all their methods involve punishing their loyal users, with things like drm. Game of Thrones added a great incentive for people to buy their dvds, by addind a lot of extra content on them, much like Lord of the Rings. As far as the ufc goes, I don't really see them accomplishing much in the big picture with their anti-piracy strategy.

Kevin Spacey on the future of TV/movie distribution - "...we have demonstrated that we've learned what the music industry didn't -- give people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price, and they'll more likely pay for it rather than steal it."

"If a man with no arms and a man with no legs started learning karate, the same light bulb would appear over every head in Japan. That’s right: Glue them together and see if it can kill a panda."